Pachter down on Wii U, believes Activision pushed for Pro controller

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has returned with more “positive” commentary about the Wii U.

Speaking at the Develop Conference in Brighton last week, Patcher expressed doubt in Nintendo’s new console. He also spoke about his belief that Activision persuaded Nintendo to make the Wii U Pro Controller so that “big games like Call Of Duty” could come to the system.

He said:

“(Wii U) isn’t going to work. I don’t get it. I think that essentially this is a solution in search of a problem. I mean, somebody had an idea – ‘let’s make the controller a tablet’ – and there aren’t many games that are going to take advantage of that. Activision never said anything to me, but I know that [for] big games like Call Of Duty they said, ‘No, we’re not putting it on there if you don’t give us a conventional controller’. So they gave in.”

Patcher went on to discuss Nintendo’s approach to their hardware, thinking that innovative ideas will lead to success. In the case of Wii U (and opposed to the Wii), he feels that Nintendo isn’t “getting lucky”:

“(The Wii is) gimmicky. It worked, they got lucky, [but] I don’t think they’re getting lucky with Wii U. I don’t think they suck – I just think that they really believe that, ‘If we’re still novel, everything we do will work’. This isn’t going to work. Hardcore gamers will buy them; hardcore Nintendo fanboys will buy it. They could put out a piece of cardboard and say that it’ll play Mario and they’ll buy it.”